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An electricity trading company controlled by South African billionaire Johann Rupert's Remgro Ltd. has applied for a licence to import and export power across southern Africa, a step that would let it buy and sell electricity beyond South Africa's borders.
The Energy Exchange of Southern Africa (Pty) Ltd., known as EXSA, is seeking an electricity import-export licence covering South Africa and the Southern African Development Community, according to a notice from the National Energy Regulator of South Africa. The regulator will hear oral submissions on the application at a virtual public hearing on Dec. 7, from 9:30 a.m. to 1 p.m., which will be streamed live. People who want to speak must register by 4:30 p.m. on Nov. 30, and the hearing will be cancelled if nobody registers.
The same hearing will consider an application from Engie Energy Marketing South Africa (Pty) Ltd., a unit of the French utility, for a licence to trade electricity in the Eastern Cape and KwaZulu-Natal provinces.
A growing trader
Remgro set up EXSA in 2017 and controls it through its Ubiquity Energy unit, in which FirstRand Ltd.'s Rand Merchant Bank bought a 25% stake in 2023. EXSA, based in Paarl in the Western Cape, is run by Chief Executive Officer Wayne Cowie.
EXSA buys renewable power from private wind and solar producers and "wheels" it through Eskom's national grid to corporate customers, which pay for transmission but get their power from someone other than the state utility. Nersa gave it a trading licence in 2022, and it began trading in 2023.
Its customers include hospital operator Mediclinic, retailer Woolworths, insurer Old Mutual and Siqalo Foods. In August 2025, EXSA signed a 15-year agreement to buy all the output from Seriti Green's 155-megawatt Ummbila Emoyeni wind farm in Mpumalanga, a project costing about R5 billion ($301 million) that is expected to produce about 525 gigawatt-hours a year.
A cross-border licence would extend that model into the regional market. Remgro already has a foothold there through Ubiquity's 51% stake in Enerweb, which runs the trading platform used by the Southern African Power Pool, the body that links the national grids of southern African countries. Nersa granted Enpower Trading an import-export licence for the region in July 2025.
Rupert's group
Remgro is the investment company through which the Rupert family holds stakes in businesses ranging from hospital group Mediclinic to brewer Heineken Beverages, and electricity trading is one of its smaller and newer bets. The group has not disclosed what EXSA earns.
Rupert, 76, is Remgro's chairman and also chairs Compagnie Financière Richemont SA, the Swiss owner of Cartier and Van Cleef & Arpels. His family controls Remgro through unlisted B shares that carry most of the voting rights. Forbes estimates the net worth of Rupert and his family at $15.5 billion, making him South Africa's richest person.
Figures were converted at R16.6 to the dollar.
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